


When Charlie Met Anna

by TruthandChaos



Category: Life (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 11:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20545754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TruthandChaos/pseuds/TruthandChaos
Summary: The first time Charlie Crews met Anna Morgan she cried. *Complete* Charlie/OC





	When Charlie Met Anna

**Author's Note:**

> *Trigger Warning*
> 
> Miscarriage mention first chapter.

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

* * *

The first time Charlie Crews met Anna Morgan she cried. He was investigating the death of her fiancé Andrew Vasquez. Reese liked her for the killer, Charlie didn't.

Anna cried so hard that her whole body shook. She had been wearing her wedding dress.

She taught public school.

Charlie knew for certain Anna Morgan wasn't the killer. He called it his gut instinct.

Reese told him to stop thinking with his little head.

Three days later Charlie found out the killer was Anna's father. Mister Jacob Morgan, Anna's father, didn't like Anna's husband to be. Anna's father had been trying to break up the wedding for months.

Charlie had gone to Anna's house without Reese. Reese had said she'd take the paper work. Charlie had the feeling Reese didn't want to face Anna when the former bride started to cry.

Much to Charlie's surprise Anna hadn't cried. She had stood very, very still and asked him to repeat himself. When he did Anna had slapped Charlie. Then she slammed the door in his face.

She never came to the station to see her father.

* * *

The second time Charlie met Anna he had pulled her over for a DUI. At least he thought it was a DUI. Her hands had been covered in blood. She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. She was at least five months pregnant.

And she was having a miscarriage. Charlie called an ambulance for her. He'd gone to the hospital with her. He waited as long as he could before he had to go to the station.

He went back to the hospital that evening.

She had lost the baby.

It had been her fiancé's baby.

Anna was shaking and crying again. Charlie helped her into his car. The nurse had told him Anna couldn't drive home. She couldn't be alone. He did it to be nice. Because it was Zen to help someone he didn't have to help. He did it because he felt guilty for being there every time her life started to break apart.

Anna asked, in a shuddering breath, for him to stay away. She told him that every time he came near her something bad happened. She closed the front door on him.

He had no idea why it bothered him.

* * *

The third time Charlie Crews met Anna Morgan had been at her father's trial. Anna was alone every day of the trial. When the defense called her they tried to crucify her. They tried to make it look like Anna was a cold, selfish person. A bad daughter. The defense attorney had asked her why she hadn't gone to see her father in almost nine months.

Anna hadn't looked at her father's attorney. She had cast her dark eyes on her father who was looking pleadingly back at her. "Could you still love the monster that killed the only man you ever loved?"

Anna's father changed his plea after the recess. He pleaded guilty. He tried to tell Anna he was sorry. Anna walked out of the court room while her father begged her to understand.

He kept saying he had done it for her own good.

Charlie chased her down the steps to the court house. He didn't know why.

Anna had wiped at her tears and glared up at him.

"You have a really bad habit of seeing me at my worst."

Charlie had shrugged, "I don't think your worst is so bad."

Anna had only shaken her head at him. She walked away.

* * *

The fourth time Charlie met Anna he had the distinct feeling that it was not coincidence. The universe was sticking Anna Morgan right in his path.

And he didn't exactly know how to feel about that.

He had signed a release allowing children to come orange picking (what happened to the days of apple picking?) in his orange grove. Charlie hadn't even planned on being there. Ted said it would be fun for him. Charlie went because it was his day off. He went because he was bored.

He went because deep down, he loved kids.

When Charlie saw Anna conducting the group of children his mouth had gone dry. Ted had introduced them. Charlie informed his friend that they had already met. Anna had thanked him very politely for letting her students visit his grove.

She called him Mister Crews.

Charlie showed the fourth graders his big red tractor. He told them could keep the oranges they picked. He picked one and gave it to Anna.

Anna had smiled at him. A shy, soft smile that made her sad brown eyes warm.

One of the other teachers, a leggy brunette with bedroom eyes put her phone number in his hand. He'd dropped the little white slip with the phone number in the dirt sometime between the point that Anna kissed his cheek and Anna touched his hand.

She apologized for losing her temper with him. He had only helped her and she had never said thank you. Anna thanked Charlie for being there.

She smelled like apples and honey.

He asked her if he could see her again. He pointed out that nothing bad had happened to her in his orange grove. Anna had smiled at him sadly. She said maybe.

Maybe.

He could deal with maybe.

Charlie suggested to Ted that the kids from Anna's elementary school could use a trip to his solar farm too. Ted arranged for the children, and there by Anna, to visit Charlie's solar farm. Ted had to hire an expert to explain the farm to the kids. And to Charlie.

Charlie had trouble picking out a shirt to wear. Blue brought out his eyes. Purple and green reminded people his hair was red. White made him look like he was trying too hard. Black made him look like Dracula.

Ted picked out the brown button up. When Charlie asked him why brown Ted had answered, "Because her eyes are brown."

So Charlie wore his brown button up and blue jeans with a belt.

She wore a sun dress, a pale blue one with little white flowers on it.

Anna told him he looked nice.

Nice. Nice. Nice was good.

He stumbled over telling her she looked beautiful.

She called him Mr. Crews again. He asked her to call him Charlie.

He stood next to her while the Solar Farming professional talked.

Charlie asked Anna for her phone number.

Anna replied that he already had it from the investigation.

Charlie told her that he wanted her to give him her phone number. Because she wanted to.

Anna had blushed and that shy smile he was growing to like made him feel warm inside.

She gave him her phone number.

Their hands brushed when they walked behind the group of children that were following the professional Ted had hired. He grabbed her hand when their arms bumped again. Charlie tugged her behind one of the giant solar panels and kissed her hard. Anna kissed him back.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

* * *

Glycerine - Bush

Every Time - Britney Spears

* * *

The first time that Anna Morgan met Charlie Crews she was wearing white. A pure white wedding dress to be exact. Her father had insisted it be pure white. If her mother had been alive she might have argued. Anna's wedding dress was whiter than snow and the pearls on the bodice glinted in the sunlight when she opened the door.

She had smiled at the red haired man in a tailored charcoal suit and the brown haired woman in matching attire. Anna had thought it funny. They were wearing black. She was wearing white.

Anna's smile had fallen when they identified themselves as police officers. Her first fear was for her father, he was always getting himself into trouble. Her next was for her boyfriend, her husband to be. He hadn't come home the night before but it wasn't unusual, he sometimes stayed over at the office to finish working.

Andrew owned his own office.

When the brown haired woman told her that Andrew was dead, Anna's hands started to shake. She didn't remember when she felt the tears in her eyes but she did remember sitting down in her wedding dress. There were tear stains all over the satin.

Anna had answered their questions through sobs and when they were gone she curled up on the couch and cried so very hard. She should have known better than to wear white.

He came alone to tell her that her father had killed Andrew. Anna had slapped him. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because the news he brought hurt. Anna closed the door in his face so she wouldn't have to cry in front of anyone else.

* * *

The second time Anna Morgan met Charlie Crews she was six months pregnant. She had been a couple of weeks when they first met, and now five months later, he was back in her life when she had the worst news of all. Her baby, Andrew's baby, was dying.

Anna hadn't been thinking very clearly when she started spotting. She had shoved a pad between her legs and climbed into her tiny Volvo. She must have been swerving because she was pulled over. Anna hadn't realized she hadn't washed the blood off her hands after putting the pad on.

He looked sorry for her. Even with those dark sunglasses on, she could see his brow crease and his mouth frown. He called an ambulance for her. He waited with her and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Anna had closed her eyes and tried not to see his black suit.

Anna spent all day in the hospital because her baby wasn't just a baby. She had been wondering why her stomach was so large. Twins. She had been carrying twins. Two girls that would have had Andrew's hair and Andrew's dark eyes.

Anna cried until she had no more tears to shed.

By the time she was leaving the hospital Charlie Crews was back. She hadn't spoken a word to him. He told her he'd take her home.

Home? What home? Her father was a murderer. Her husband was dead. Her children were dead. What home did she have to go back to? There was just an empty house that smelled of people long gone.

And an empty nursery.

It had taken a lot not to break down crying in his car. She had started to thank him but somewhere along the way it came out differently. Anna asked Charlie Crews to stay away from her. Every time he showed up something bad happened.

He had offered to help her inside. Anna had pulled away from him and his help.

It hurt to have someone pity her.

* * *

Anna Morgan saw Charlie Crews for a third time in a supermarket. He was buying fruit. She had hidden behind over sized starlet style sunglasses and a tower of canned soup. She waited for him to leave.

Her heart thundered in her ears the entire time.

* * *

The fourth time Anna saw Charlie was nine months, three weeks and five days after their initial meeting. Her father's case had finally gone to court. He was pleading innocent.

The defense had subpoenaed her to be a witness.

Her friends Jack and Bennie, law students in Harvard, warned her that the defense might try to make her out to be the bad guy. She hadn't gone to see her father in all of the time he spent in jail. They told her to cry. They told her to look like she was a mess. They told her to bring up the miscarriage if the defense started pushing it.

Anna had to prepare herself for her father's trial. Not because she didn't want to see her father. And not because she didn't want to face the court room when they called her. Because they would call her.

She had to prepare herself because every time Anna thought about Charlie Crews her pulse jumped. Her heart pounded. Anna Morgan had realized sometime after she had seen him the supermarket that she had developed a school girl crush on him.

Because he was there every time the shit hit the fan for her.

Because Charlie hadn't run away when she slapped him.

Anna sat in the back, on the prosecution's side, near the doors. It made her feel better to sit near the doors. It made her feel better knowing that Charlie would know she was there.

Her friends had been right. The defense had tried to play her off as the bad child. They asked what kind of daughter wouldn't go to see her father.

Anna didn't need to force herself to cry. She thought about Andrew and the twins and the tears came freely. She told the defense attorney exactly what kind of daughter she was.

The judge called a recess.

Her father changed his plea after the recess. He had called out to her when they were putting the handcuffs back on. He told her he had done it for her own good. That Andrew didn't deserve her. Anna left the court room on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

She knew someone was following her through the hall and she stopped on the stairs. Anna turned around using her wrists to remove tears from her eyes. There stood Charlie Crews, wearing charcoal again and those dark sunglasses.

"You," she sniffed, "have a terrible knack for seeing me at my worst."

Charlie had shrugged and looked at her over the rims of his glasses with eyes that held no pity, "I don't think your worst is so bad."

Anna felt her throat tighten, and the confusion he caused her made her head spin. She shook her head to clear her mind and walked away from him.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

* * *

Everlong - Foo Fighters

Walking After You - Foo Fighters

In Love with a Friend - Deep Dish

* * *

The first field trip of the school year Anna had suggested to the entire fourth grade staff. Growing up in New York she had enjoyed the apple picking trips. They really didn't have many apple orchards in California. They did have orange groves. They had a lot orange groves.

Her school had entirely been in charge of finding the orange grove. Anna had no hand in it.

So when Anna had seen Charlie Crews standing with the man that her school had contacted for use of the orange grove, she had panicked. Her stomach had bottomed out and for a moment she couldn't breathe.

Anna was the lead teacher on this field trip. She would have to thank Charlie Crews for letting the school use his orange grove. Anna steeled herself and told the other teacher, Rebecca to go ahead of her. The grey haired man, went up to Rebecca first, introducing himself and Charlie.

Anna watched Rebecca shake her head and smile.

With nerves half wracked Anna Morgan finished speaking to the bus driver and got off the yellow and black school bus. The gray haired man shook her hand. He introduced her to Charlie Crews.

Anna called him Mister Crews because in her head she had been calling him Charlie.

Rebecca was the biology teacher. While she explained to the fourth grade class the process of photosynthesis, Anna had crossed her fingers and prayed Charlie Crews would just stay away.

She had the feeling that he wouldn't.

Because her luck just didn't work like that.

He took some of the kids for a ride in his tractor. He asked her if she liked the color red. He asked her very politely if she would like a ride in his tractor.

Anna had trouble not blushing. A veiled innuendo was still an innuendo in her book.

She had been biting her thumb nail, something she did when she was thinking, when an orange appeared in front of her face. Anna had blinked at the round fruit, then the fingers holding it and the hand they were attached to. Charlie was looking at her over the rim of his dark sunglasses, "This might taste better."

A slight heat ran itself across her cheekbones. Anna smiled at Charlie shyly and thanked him.

While the kids ran around joyful that they could keep the oranges, Anna saw Rebecca flirt with Charlie. It hurt. A dull throb somewhere in her chest. It was that moment that Anna Morgan realized the way she felt about Charlie Crews.

It was so much more than a school girl crush.

In her head Anna heard her friend Jack's voice telling her to get a back bone.

Backbone. Anna squeezed the orange in her hand. Backbone.

"I'm sorry," Anna murmured after Rebecca was on the school bus.

"For?" Charlie had asked her.

Anna looked at the broad side of the bus, "For being such an ungrateful little bitch. All you've ever done was try to help me and…" She shook her head and looked up at him. He was at least a full head taller than her. "Thank you Charlie Crews for being there when I needed someone. I know I haven't been very nice about it."

Her hand brushed his as she pushed up on her toes and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek. He looked a little shocked. Anna gave him a soft half smile and stepped up on the bus.

"Anna," it was the first time he had said it without her last name. Her heart had skipped a beat.

She turned on the stairs, "Yes?"

"Can I," he paused, "Can I see you again?"

Anna looked down, dark eyes on the black and yellow floor. She looked up again, eyes set on his pale green shirt. Anna smiled at him. He wasn't wearing black. "Maybe."

Then she stepped up and the bus driver closed the door.

* * *

Rebecca had spread the word at school that Anna 'had a thing' for Charlie Crews. When the fourth graders were invited to see the solar farm Rebecca could not let it drop. Anna was not the teacher placed in charge. Because people knew she had 'a thing' for Charlie.

What no one had expected was that Anna was completely all right with that.

"Obvious much?" Rebecca had sniffed when Anna wore her pale blue sun dress.

Anna had smiled placatingly at the tall brunette, "Nineteen ninety five called, they want their terminology back."

Rebecca had pointedly ignored her for the entire ride to the Solar Farm.

Backbone.

Ted Early had greeted Rebecca this time, but Charlie wasn't with him. Another man was, somewhat portly and a little gray around the edges. For a moment Anna thought he wasn't going to be there. Her stomach bottomed out again. Anna ushered the children off the bus and spoke with the bus driver.

When she turned around there was Charlie Crews. Her heart jumped into her throat. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses. Anna stepped down from the bus, "You look nice."

"You look," he paused looking at her in a way that made Anna blush from head to toe, "You look great. Pretty. Beautiful I mean."

She covered her mouth to muffle the soft giggle that sprang to her lips, "Thank you Mister Crews."

"Charlie," he corrected instantly. "Call me Charlie. Please."

Her hand dropped back to her side, "Thank you Charlie."

Rebecca had invited him to stand near the front of the class with her. Since she was, after all, the group leader. Charlie had declined politely and stood in the back of the students. With Anna. Rebecca had not been happy.

"I think you pissed her off," Anna murmured to him while the Solar Farming professional began to introduce himself.

"She'll live," he replied.

Backbone.

"I wanted to call you," he said out of the blue. "Last week I wanted to call you but I realized I never asked you for your phone number."

Anna frowned, turning her head just slightly to look up at him, "You have my phone number from the investigation."

His mouth curved up at one corner and he turned toward her, "I don't want to call you without your consent. I want," and she was fairly sure some of the kids were listening very intently, "you to give me your phone number. Because you want to."

There were two very soft giggle in front of them.

The heat of a blush spread across her face. She couldn't help the smile. It just happened. Anna cocked her head and asked for his phone. He gave it to her. She typed in her phone number and handed it back. Their fingers brushed as he took it.

The Solar Farm professional had started walking backwards, beckoning the children and the teachers forward. Sometime during her early years of high school, Anna couldn't honestly remember who, someone had told her that if you wanted a guy to hold your hand, you should bump his hand with yours while you walk.

Several years later Anna took the advice.

She let the back of her hand brush Charlie's as they walked. Out of the corner of her eye Anna saw Charlie hesitate. Then he kept walking. Anna let the backs of her knuckles brush his hand. This time Charlie did stop. His hand enclosed hers.

Charlie tugged her hand, pulling her to the left, away from the group. They hid between two gigantic solar panels. "Hi," he murmured.

"Hi," She whispered in return.

He ducked his head and kissed her harder than she had ever been kissed by anyone in her life. Anna threw her arms around his shoulders, pressed up on her toes and kissed him back.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Chapter 4**

* * *

Black Balloon - The Goo Goo Dolls

Maps - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Jump into the Fire - Harry Nilsson

* * *

Jack and Bennie Ginsberg, otherwise known as Jacqueline and Bernard to their Harvard friends, took a semester off and went home to California. They crashed, as they always did in their friend Anna's guest room. The couple had planned on taking care of their friend who had been to hell and back in the past year.

Anna had moved out of the house that she had been living in last year. She had managed to sell it because the school district was one of the best. Anna was renting a house a few miles away, smaller than the last, and was waiting on the escrow to go through. Anna called her new place the rental.

She couldn't live in a house with all those memories.

So when Jack and Bennie had finally set up in the guest room, they hadn't expected Anna to be so…upbeat. It was a surprise, not an unpleasant one, because they were happy to see Anna moving on. But it was still…it was a surprise.

Jacqueline was not a woman who was thrown easily. She adjusted her five step plan to get Anna back on the proverbial horse. Instead of getting Anna over the moping depression that had been step one, she made number two move up a notch. Getting Anna back into dating.

"I think," Jack said as she set out plates for dinner, "that you should start dating again. Andrew wouldn't have wanted you to stop completely. He'd want you to-"

"I'm seeing someone." Anna interjected as she stirred the pot of spaghetti noodles.

Jacqueline, poised, genteel, brilliant, Jacqueline who had won several beauty contests through high school, lost her grip on the last plate and nearly dropped it.

"Sort of," Anna continued with her back to her friend. "I think."

Jacqueline almost slammed the abused plate on the table and stuttered out a disbelieving and alarmed, "_What?_"

"We've been dancing around each other for a while," Anna supplied, turning her head just slightly so she could see the stupefied expression Jacqueline wore. "Jack, are you okay?"

The brunette sat herself down at the table because at that moment she couldn't exactly feel her legs, "Peachy."

"That's great," Bennie said enthusiastically. He shot a half hearted glare at his wife, "What's his name?"

Anna bit her lip and turned back to the pot of boiling spaghetti and water, "Charlie."

"Charlie what?" Jacqueline asked suspiciously.

"Crews."

"Oh hell no." Jacqueline said at the same time her husband said, "Well shit."

"The Charlie convicted of murder and sent to jail for twelve years Crews?" Bennie asked, needing clarification. There could be other men in California with that name. The odds were…well he had never been very good with statistics, but the odds were fair.

"The very same," Anna replied. She switched off the burner. "Pasta's ready."

"No," Jacqueline almost jumped from her chair. "No way. No. Not him. I know you like men with issues sweet heart, but god damn." She pressed a well manicured hand to her forehead, "I think I'm getting a migraine."

"Didn't he win a huge figure in the settlement?" Bennie asked trying to see the brighter side. His wife scowled at him. He ignored her, "I know the amount was never disclosed but-"

"Stop being a Jew for five minutes would you?" Jacqueline snapped at her husband. "I don't care how much money he's got." Her hands went to her hips, one jet black eyebrow rose as she watched Anna go about finishing the dinner preparations. She knew how to hit home. "Do you really think Andrew would be okay with this?"

Anna stopped shaking the water from the strainer. "I used to wonder that," she shook the strainer once more then poured the pasta into an empty bowl. She picked up a clean dish towel and began wiping her hands, "I wondered that for a long time actually. Then I realized that Andy would have wanted me to be happy. He would have wanted me to move on." Anna lifted the ceramic bowl of pasta and carried it between Bennie and Jack and set it on the table.

"I'm happy." She said to them, her voice solemn and soft. "Isn't that what really matters?"

For once in her twenty nine years on earth, Jacqueline gave up on keeping her foot down. She wrapped her arms around her best friend of eighteen years, "Course sweetie."

Anna hugged Jack back, "Thank you for caring."

"Aww," Bennie teased, trying to lighten the mood, "Why can't I ever get in on the girl on girl action?"

Anna picked up a few strings of Angel hair and threw them at him, "Pervert."

The tall black haired man grinned at her and threw his arms around her and his wife, "Group hug!"

* * *

Charlie had been staring at his phone's contact list on and off for over an hour. Ted eyed his employer, friend and landlord with something between curiosity and amusement. For the third time Charlie closed the phone without hitting dial and set it to the side. The younger man took a few bites of his dinner, set his fork down and opened the cell phone again.

Ted picked up his napkin, wiped his mouth and said, "Just hit send Charlie."

Charlie's voice was distant as he looked at the phone number, "She was sixteen."

Ted, who had been in the middle of chewing, swallowed accidentally and choked. He coughed to dislodge the piece of zucchini that had lodged itself in his throat.

Alarmed Charlie reached over and hit his friend on the back.

Ted coughed a few more times then took a very large swallow of water, then gave a vehement and worried, "_What?_"

Charlie closed the cell phone again, "Anna was sixteen when I went to jail."

Relieved Ted put one hand to his chest, "Christ Charlie you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Which I think makes me a hypocrite on some level." Charlie looked at his cell phone with a cross of self loathing and annoyance. He wanted to call Anna.

He _really_ wanted to call Anna.

"The age gap between your father and Olivia is over thirty years." Ted supplied, feeling a slight jealous pang when he thought of Olivia. "You're thirty seven. Anna Morgan is twenty eight, maybe twenty nine. Nothing hypocritical there Charlie."

That didn't stop him from feeling like a dirty old man. Which was ironic and terribly funny really. Before Charlie met Anna, he had been slept with a number of women who happened to be younger than her. He was fairly sure there had even been an eighteen year old or two somewhere in the list. Not that he could remember.

He had stopped bringing random women home after the orange grove. Because Charlie had realized when Anna had said maybe it was enough to give him hope. Charlie spun his phone on the counter top.

Hypocrite or not.

Dirty old man or not.

He still, really, really wanted to call Anna.

Ted's hand came down on the black and grey Razor as Charlie had sent it spinning again. "If you don't pick up that phone and call her I swear to God I will throw it in the pool."

Charlie was looking at Ted's hand, but he wasn't really seeing it. "She deserves better."

Ted removed his hand, "But she wants you."

A pale hand picked up his cell phone and scrolled through the contact list again until the highlight was over her name. She did deserve better. Charlie hit send because, in the end, he wanted her too.

* * *

_A/N: My cousin married a Jewish woman and converted to Judaism for her. Now whenever my cousin starts talking money his wife yells at him to stop being a Jew for five minutes. I think it's the funniest thing ever._

_I took Charlie's age from the actor that plays him. I don't remember them ever saying in the show how old he is._

* * *

**Chapter 5: Chapter 5**

* * *

Cue the Strings - Low

Come as You Are - Nirvana

Crazy For You - New Found Glory

* * *

Anna had always imagined that if Jacqueline hadn't been born to argue, she might have made a fair hair dresser. There was a rather large Con Air curling iron in Anna's dirty blonde tresses. She winced slightly when the curling iron came close enough to her skull to make her uncomfortable from the heat.

"My god woman," Bennie groaned to his wife, "Stop torturing her."

If Jack had had a free hand she might have thrown something at her husband. Fortunately for him she had her hands full. "Shut up, unlike you, we ladies enjoy being pampered." She released the wrapped strands and sighed mournfully as Anna's hair stayed curled. "I wish I had your hair Annie. It stays. No product, no hair spray."

Anna snorted, "If you want my hair I will trade you. Frizz and all come the summer."

"Pfft," Jack wrapped another set of dark blonde strands around her giant pink curling iron, "That's what they made Frizz-Ease for."

"No thanks. I'll deal with the frizz." Anna said. "Somehow the idea of spending forty something dollars a month on hair product just doesn't seem to work itself out."

Jack rolled her eyes upward and released the next few strands of hair.

There was a soft singing. Gin Blossoms.

"Not mine," Bennie said, turning from the television and Anna's TiVo of the last season of Doctor Who to look for the offending ringing object.

"Mine," Anna said digging in her cargo pants. She located the little red phone in her left knee pocket and pulled it out. The number that flashed was unfamiliar. Her brow creased as she hit send. "Hello?"

The person on the other end of the line fumbled. There was a very audible clack and then a soft muttering of 'shit.'

Anna covered her mouth stifling a giggle. She had trouble keeping the laughter out of her voice when she said, "Hello," again.

On the other end of the line Charlie wondered how one phone call could reduce him to feeling like he was in junior high again. A gangly teenager who stumbled over his words. "Anna, hi." He waited a beat for her to answer, then added, "It's Charlie."

This time it was Anna who fumbled. She recovered none too gracefully and squeaked when her hair pulled against Jack's gigantic curling iron.

It was Charlie's turn to laugh.

Anna heard him chuckling. "Ow," Anna hissed. She pressed the phone back to her ear, "Um…hi Charlie."

"Did I call at a bad time?"

"No," she said quickly, "It's just…ow!" Anna put her hand over the phone to muffle the sound but Charlie heard it anyway. "Jack, seriously, if you don't stop yanking my hair I'm going to take that thing away from you and have Sheba bury it in the back yard."

"Stop moving your head then," another female voice said.

There was an annoyed puff of air then, "Sorry. My, ow, friend Jack is feeling ruthless tonight. My hair must have done something to her in her past life."

And here he had been thinking Jack was a guy. Good to know. "I'm guessing Sheba isn't human if she's going to be burying things in the yard."

Anna laughed a warm sound, gentle and amused, "Sheba is my dog. One of the second grade teachers was giving away her dog's puppies a few months ago. I – OW!"

Charlie pulled the phone away from his ear, but not in enough time to keep it from ringing. He rubbed his right ear and put the phone near, but not next to his left one. On the other end of the line he could hear Anna moving around.

"Sorry Charlie, hold on one minute, okay?"

He was nodding but he didn't answer. She said his name to make sure he was still there. Charlie realized he hadn't said anything. "Oh, yea. Sure." After a beat, "Yes."

Gangly, tongue-tied _teenager_.

She was moving around on the other end of the line. Some shuffling, a door opening and closing. Charlie pulled the phone away from his ear again and looked at it. It really was amazing what these things could pick up.

Talk about technological advancement.

"I'm sorry," Anna apologized after she had closed the door to her own room. Sheba, a medium sized half-breed Siberian Husky puppy with one blue eye and one brown eye, rolled onto her back. Anna stretched out on her bed, pinching the phone between her shoulder and ear. "So I thought that it was written in the 'how to be a guy' handbook that you're not supposed to call a girl for at least two weeks after getting her phone number."

"Girl, yes," Charlie replied, "Woman, no."

Anna was suddenly thankful for distance. Her face burned.

"Women," Charlie continued, avoiding looking at Ted as the older man came through the living room, "I think it's a one week waiting period." Cheesy. Cheesy. _Cheesy_.

Did he sound this bad when he picked up Tina and Gina?

Oh…no…wait…_they_ picked _him_ up.

Maybe it was the money.

Anna paused in scratching her puppy's furry brown tummy, "I think you're breaking the rules Charlie." Sheba licked her hand. Anna smiled and kept scratching, "It's only been five days."

He smiled, "You counted?"

She bit her lip, "You didn't?"

Oh, he had. He really had. Charlie found himself looking at Ted who happened to be wearing a somewhat smug smile. One reddish eyebrow rose. Ted moved on his way.

"If I admit I counted would you hold it against me?"

Sheba had enough of the belly scratching and returned to grooming her paws.

Anna rolled onto her back and moved the phone to her other ear. "Isn't that the equivalent of asking if…" Anna bit her lip, "Never mind."

It was too late, his curiosity was already sparked. He said so. Charlie could almost hear her blush as she muttered out the pickup line. "Wow," he said after a full beat of silence, "pickup lines haven't gotten any better."

"At least it's better than being asked if I work out." She stretched one slender arm into the air, "because, you know, I look like I work out."

Willowy. That was the term that came to Charlie's mind when he thought of Anna. She looked willowy. Slight. Lithe. The words 'work out' didn't exactly…well…work.

"Lithe? Me?" Anna said.

Charlie realized he had been talking out loud. He really needed to work on that. Along with the saying everything that popped into his head. Maybe they went hand in hand. Probably. "More like willowy."

Anna laughed again, "I'm five four, willowy doesn't work. Let's stick with slight. I like slight."

"Willowy," he said as he pushed open the sliding door to the patio. "I like willowy." He pulled the glass door closed. "I like that you're willowy."

"What else do you like about me?" Anna had asked on the other end of the line.

"Your eyes," he said because it was her eyes that made his mind stop thinking and gave him pause. It sounded like she was smiling. He didn't know why it sounded like that. Smiles had no sound.

"Oh really?" Anna teased, "What color are they?"

He closed his own eyes against the sunset, "That depends."

"On what?" Anna asked curiously.

"On what you're doing. When you're talking to your students your eyes look almost like dark amber. And when the sun catches them the right way they're a lighter color sort of like yellow crystal. When you're crying they're dark, like coffee." He breathed out because she had gone very quiet, "And when you look at me they look warm, almost liquid, like melting chocolate."

Anna was silent on the other end of the line. He said her name to make sure he hadn't lost her.

"I would have settled for brown Charlie." Her voice was soft, but it was happy.

He took the opportunity to ask her out. Anna said yes.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Chapter 6**

* * *

Take a Chance on Me - ABBA

Skeptics and True Believers - The Academy Is

* * *

Charlie's plan, because he did have to have a plan when it came to Anna, was to take her somewhere nice for their first date. Somewhere nice. He had been thinking a restaurant that required him to be in a suit and her to be in a dress. He liked the way she looked in a dress.

She had amazing legs.

So how they ended up at a La Coasta, both of them in jeans and t-shirts was completely beyond him. He had suggested the restaurant with the dress code. He honestly did remember saying it.

Anna sipped her iced tea from a over sized paper cup and watched him watching her. She put the drink down, "You're staring at me Charlie."

Which he was. He liked the way the sunlight caught her hair and made it look a lighter shade. He had always like blonde hair. Always. On women. He supposed that meant his type was blonde. Not that he didn't like brunettes. He did like brunettes. He just usually ended up liking blondes more.

Eyes on the other hand, he never had a preference for eye color. Blue eyes, green eyes, gray, brown, hazel, it didn't matter. Eyes were eyes. Normally. Usually.

"Char-lie," Anna said in a sing song way that drew him back down to Earth.

"I'm staring," he echoed.

Anna pressed long fingers to her lips, effectively covering her mouth and her laughter.

His head tilted, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" Her hand returned to the table.

"Every time you start to laugh," Charlie leaned his chin in his hand, elbow on the table as he looked at her, "you cover your mouth."

Anna looked down, perfectly straight and even teeth pinching her lower lip. "I," her mouth opened then closed again. "I don't know really." She began picking at the shrimp ceviche on her paper plate. "I guess it's because my family never could afford braces growing up. I had to pay for them on my own later."

He thought about her as a teenager. Which in turn lead to him thinking about her at sixteen. Which lead to him thinking about going to jail. Which made him feel like a dirty old man again.

"I'm thirty seven," he had said solemnly after a few beats of silence. "I think I'm too old for you."

Anna had smiled at him, one of her shy smiles that made his pulse pick up. She reached for his hand over the table and laced her fingers with his, "Maybe I like that you're older than me."

Her skin was darker than his, not by much, just a little. His was the paler side of ruddy. He didn't tan. Too much European blood. Anna's skin was warmer, the kind that browned when the sun hit it.

His eyes traced over their laced fingers. "My father is marring an eight year old."

Anna had blinked at him. Large brown eyes looked at him with the utmost curiosity. "By eight year old you mean…?"

It was his turn to look down at his food, "She might be two or three years older than you."

Anna withdrew her hand and shrugged, "It could be worse."

Charlie's eyebrows rose in questioning.

She skewered a small pink and white shrimp with her fork and eyed it then pointed it at him, "She could actually be eight." Then she smiled, a less shy smile, and put the shrimp and the fork back on the plate.

He had figured out she had three smiles. The shy one, the teasing one and the genuine happy one. This was the teasing one. She was messing with him.

Charlie attempted to glower at her. It only made her smile grow wider.

"Want desert?" Anna folded her plate up, "They've got the best Mexican mango here."

Mexican mango?

"Yes Charlie, Mexican Mango."

He _really_ needed to work on that.

"I've never had it."

He did not like the grin that plastered itself on her face. It came on too fast. She took his garbage with hers and went up to order. He'd already tried to pay for food. She'd scowled at him for it. Charlie learned to keep his wallet in his pocket.

Anna returned with two more paper cups and handed him one. He eyed the contents suspiciously. Two slices of mango sprinkled with something that looked an awful lot like chili powder and there was yellowish liquid at the bottom. He sent her a wary sidelong glance. Anna was biting into hers. She didn't take a drink after she bit into it.

He looked at the fruit again.

He liked fruit. He liked mangos.

How bad could it be?

Charlie picked up the dripping fruit and bit into it. He chewed and tasted warmth, mango, salt and lemon juice. And chili powder. A lot of chili powder. It hit the back of his throat. Charlie coughed and grabbed the drink Anna already had waiting in front of him.

The Mexican family sitting at the table in front of them heckled.

Once the chili pepper had left the back of his throat and his mouth had stopped burning he glared at her. Anna giggled, the back of her hand covering her mouth and half of her smile. She hadn't warned him there was salt on it too. And lemon juice. Anna bit off another mouthful meeting his glare with a mischievous beaming grin. "I did tell you it was Mexican Mango," Anna told him after she'd swallowed. "The lemon juice helps if you bite from that end first."

She couldn't have told him that _before_ he took the first bite?

Charlie took another long sip from his soda.

Anna giggled at him again, her wrist covering part of her mouth.

He flipped the mango around and bit it. Salty sweet against his tongue. The chili powder was warm in his mouth, but not an overwhelming burn. He swallowed a mouthful and bit into it again.

"Good?" Anna asked after she'd finished her first slice.

Charlie looked at her, watched her bite the next slice. Watched her brush dark blonde hair behind her ear, and lick her fingers. His mouth went up at the corners, "Good."

* * *

_La Coasta is actually a chain of Mexican Taquieras (sp?) all over California. I love it there, the food is the best._

_My boyfriend actually introduced me to Mexican Mangos. I still can't eat it with the amount of chili pepper that's supposed to be on it, but it's good none the less._

* * *

**Chapter 7: Chapter 7**

* * *

Nickleback - Saving Me

Nickleback - Someday

Nickleback - Rock Star

* * *

"You're dating a cop."

Anna shrugged to herself, "Technically we're not dating. We're seeing each other. Nothing as official as dating."

On the other end of the line Elyria Duke, Anna's cousin, was smirking, "Don't change the damn subject." She pinched the cell phone between her right shoulder and ear, "A cop. And not just any cop," her hands began to feel around her sweatshirt, jacket and jeans searching for her lighter after she located a cigarette. She found it hiding in the breast pocket of her worn green army jacket. "You're dating the cop that you told me you hoped you'd never see again."

Anna's lip pinched between her teeth for a moment. "Yes."

"Uh huh," Elyria flicked the black metal lighter with day-glow Grateful Dead bears a few times, it sparked, but no flame. The fourth time she tried it lit, the wind blew it out. "Mother fu-" She bit down on the inside of her cheek as a woman with a sickly child walked past her.

"El, are you alright?"

Holding both the cigarette and lighter with one hand, "Yeah, I just hate this fu…freaking hospital."

Anna pushed back the curtains from the small window at her sink, "It's not picnic for Viola either El."

"No, really?" She switched the phone to her other ear, attempting to block the wind with her back. The lighter sparked and lighted again. The tip of her cigarette glowed reddish orange for a moment. She could have crowed.

Instead she took a drag.

"How is she by the way?" Anna asked.

Elyria looked up at the hospital, squinting amber-brown eyes to block the sun, "Chemo's screwing her up pretty good."

"I'm a three out five match El, if Viola needs a transplant…" Anna let the offer trail. They both knew the odds. With bone marrow transplants anything under four was dangerous. Host rejection could kill.

"I told you not to change the damn subject woman," Elyria expelled the smoke. A little old man that passed made a tsking sound at her. The twenty nine year old woman sneered in return. "The cop, what's his name again?"

Anna's mouth quirked at the corners, "Charlie."

"You pick a Charlie, I pick a Greg," Elyria muttered under her breath.

"Sorry, didn't hear that," Anna said into the receiver. The phone beeped a couple of times as she upped the volume. "What did you say?"

"I said," Elyria dragged on her cigarette once more, "didn't you say you never wanted to see him again?"

Anna had said that. She had said that to him. She had told her friends and Elyria that. Yet somehow he still found his way into her life. Fate, the powers that be, the universal energy, whatever, had still smashed Anna's life into Charlie's. And they kept smashing them together until Anna had gotten it through her head that he was there for a reason. So really, who was she to argue with the fates?

"Yes, back then I didn't want to see him." She shrugged more for herself because Elyria was in New Jersey, unable to see the simple action or acceptance, "But I don't mind him so much now."

"Uh huh," bluish-white smoke colored the air in front of her. "You haven't slept with him yet have you?"

Anna had the grace to blush. Her cheeks stained a soft pink. "El!"

"That would be a no then," Elyria couldn't keep the smirk from coming back. Her cigarette glowed as she dragged on it. It warmed her from the cold of the October air. "You going to sleep with him?"

On the other end of the line Anna was silent. She was biting her lip again. Her skin was flushed. "I don't know," she answered after a moment. "I really don't know El."

"You gotta get back on that horse girl."

"I don't even know how to define what's going on between us. We go out, we kiss, we talk, and somehow it never…" it never did. Ever. Sometimes, when he kissed her, Anna could almost feel the tension in him. She knew with all absolute certainty that Charlie wanted more.

He just never let it get to that stage.

Not that she had tried.

She hadn't tried. Not once. Because some part of her was still old fashioned that way.

"Woman I can hear you thinking," Elyria plucked the cigarette from her mouth. "Listen, I know you're all about the defining the relationship thing but seriously Annie, life marches on."

And Anna knew that. She knew it. The wood of the kitchen counter dug into her hipbone as she leaned against it. One arm crossed her torso just under her breasts. "El, I was with Andrew four years. We didn't even sleep together until we were official for six months."

Elyria looked at the burning end of her cigarette, seeing it but not really seeing it. "Life's too short Annie."

"I know El," and she did know. She really did. "What about your chemo? I thought you couldn't smoke during the treatments."

Elyria smiled wryly. She held the burning end of the cigarette up, imagining her old English professor talking about symbolism. Objects that represent an abstract idea. She wondered vaguely if he would think her situation funny sort of irony or just plain old sad.

"They're good," she lied, "the smoking helps with the nausea."

Anna's dark eyes closed. Her cousin could lie like a rug to everyone but Anna. Somehow, none of the cousins were ever able to figure it out; Anna always knew when Elyria was lying. "I'm glad, I know how bad it was when you were a teen."

"Yeah, well, different kind of chemo." Her cigarette had fully burned down. She dropped it to the pavement and stamped on it with the heel of her work boots. "Listen Annie, okay? Stop your fucking pussy footing around, make me some nieces and nephews with the cop if he's worth it and get on with your life okay?"

There was a lump in her throat. "Yeah," she said, the slip of her New York accent coming back, "I'll try."

Elyria's shoulders hunched as a cold wind blew past her, "No trying woman. You do it. Comprende?"

Anna was nodding, her eyes burning. She swallowed past the thickness in her throat, "I miss you El."

Across the country, standing in front of the hospital she was quite possibly going to die in, Elyria felt the burn of tears for the first time in almost ten years. "Yeah…miss you too." She blinked, "Call you next week or something."

"Alright. Take care of Vi."

"Will do. Adios hermana." Elyria's cell phone clicked closed.

The phone blinked the time at Anna. She stood against the kitchen counter, her hip bruising from the weight and pressure. The screen faded to black.

I will explain this in the next chapter, but Elyria and her sister Viola are twins. They are also the only family Anna has left that she considers family.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Chapter 8**

* * *

Drive - Melissa Davis

Bad Things - Jace Everett

* * *

There had always been a plan. Always. It had not been very specific on certain points, and the main goal was actually a series of smaller goals dumped into one collective end game. Charlie Crews wanted to know who set him up and why.

A year later he had the five that could just as easily be four. He had Jack Reese scared. He had the man killed his friends in jail. He knew exactly where Rachel was even if she wouldn't speak to him. He had his job back.

He had a life now.

He had a darker side now.

The plan had been simple even if the road he was on was fairly complex.

Meeting someone, specifically someone like Anna, had defiantly not been part of the plan.

Charlie sat on the hood of his car, a peeled orange in his hand as he waited. School was out at three Anna told him. He wanted to surprise her. He'd done things like that for Jennifer. Surprising her at work with flowers or to take her out to eat. Women liked that. At least he hoped women still liked that.

Anna was a little more progressive than he remembered women being in the nineties.

And she didn't like roses. He found that one out the hard way. Along with her aversion to wine. And dark chocolate. White Chocolate. Large groups of people. Upscale restaurants. Upscale anything.

Down to earth without being a hippie. He liked that.

He really liked that.

He chewed the orange slice he'd broken off.

Cars were pulling up. Parents waiting for their children to get out of school. Large yellow public school buses rounding the corner and passing through the gates. It was two forty five. He peeled another partition off the orange and put it in his mouth.

It was Friday afternoon, the week before Halloween.

Anna wanted him to go costume shopping with her. She wanted his opinion on the costume she was going to wear to the office party Tidwell was having. Tidwell called it bonding. Charlie called it a way for his boss to meet scantily clad women.

When Charlie had mentioned the office party he thought she would balk and decline. He had not expected her dark eyes to light up, turning that exact shade of amber that made his heart beat just that little bit faster. Halloween, as Charlie discovered, was Anna's favorite holiday.

Closely followed by September's Talk like a Pirate Day and New Years Eve.

He bit into another slice.

Charlie hadn't planned on going to Tidwell's excuse to see Reese in costume.

Now he was bringing a date.

His plans always seemed to change when it came to Anna.

There was a loud, resounding sound that was more of a horn than a bell. The doors to the school opened within a few minutes, and children began filtering out the doors. Some went to the school buses, some went to their parents.

He popped the last piece of orange into his mouth and stood up. The last time he had been to this school he had been there with Reese. They had gone to ask Anna more questions about her fiancé Andrew.

Charlie weaved his way through shouting zigzagging children with multicolored back packs.

Anna was talking to a pair of twins, little blonde girls with bright green eyes, medium skin and missing front teeth. They were grinning at her, calling her, "Miss Morgan."

He knocked lightly on the open classroom door.

A smile that Charlie imagined was brighter than his dark side, spread across Anna's face, lighting her eyes the way he loved. "Charlie, you're early."

He shrugged, leaning against the doorway, "I can wait."

"Mmm," she murmured and winked at him. Her attention returned to the twins, "Now, I know you two think it's funny to switch seats on me, but I want you to remember something."

"What Miss Morgan?" The twin on the left asked.

"I know how to tell you two apart." Anna replied.

"Yes Miss Morgan," The twin on the right said.

"Alright, off with you. Your mother's probably waiting."

The two little girls picked their back packs up off the floor and ran out of the class room. One of them called back a, "Bye mister!" to Charlie.

"Cute kids," he said after they were gone.

"Rascals," she corrected, "They like to switch seats on the other teachers to confuse them. I think I'm the only person here that can tell them apart." She tucked a few dark blonde strands behind one ear, "So…I'm guessing you're not going to dress up for the party, right?"

He shrugged again and stepped away from the doorway, "I usually don't."

Her smile faltered a little at the edges, "Oh…okay." She went to her desk, "If you don't want to go I understand."

She was babbling. He had long since noticed she did that when she didn't know what to say. He liked it when she babbled. It was cute. She had a soft blush while she talked.

"I mean, it is your boss' party anyway," her knee length pleated black skirt swished as she went about gathering the papers off her desk, "and I get it if you weren't planning on-"

Then Charlie was kissing her. His long fingers tangled in the hair at the back of her neck, his thumb stroked the pulse points just behind her left ear. Anna gave a soft, low moan and pressed up on her toes. Her hands gripped at his suit jacket.

Her bottom bumped against her desk and somehow she ended up sitting on the edge of it, Charlie pressed between her legs, the hem of her skirt inched upward exposing a, at least in Charlie's opinion, delicious span of Anna's thighs.

He really did love the way her legs looked.

"Charlie," Anna whimpered against his mouth. Her dark eyes opened just a little, seeing the open door over his shoulder.

"Hmm?" He murmured back before pressing his mouth back to hers.

The worry about being seen went out of her head when his tongue found hers. Anna's breathing changed, her heart fluttering in her chest. How did one man taste so good? Like oranges and vanilla and something else. Something she could only define as him. Her hands released his jacket to plant themselves on his chest.

Anna found her skirt half way up her thighs when Charlie switched to kissing her neck. He'd found a sensitive spot there, between her shoulder and neck, just where they joined. Anna had the same erogenous zone on both sides of her body. He bit down lightly on one side while massaging the other side with his left hand. She almost bucked off the desk.

He loved symmetry.

He loved her symmetry.

"Charlie," Anna's eyes somehow found the door once again. Luck was on her side. No one had found them yet. Her hazy mind worked to tune out his attentions…oh god…

He found the other spot on her lower back, her left hip. She had one in the same spot on her right hip, but he didn't have enough hands to cover that one too.

Symmetry.

Anna's eyes nearly rolled back into her skull. Nearly.

Through half closed eyes Anna saw a child rush past the door. They didn't stop or return to the doorway. It was enough for Anna to push at Charlie's chest. Enough to clear her mind.

"Charlie, wait, stop."

She had to give him credit, when she said stop, he stopped. His hands remained in their previous positions, but he had pulled back almost entirely. Charlie looked down at her bruised lips, her dilated pupils, the flush of her skin and he was suddenly very proud of himself. He could do that to her.

_He_ could do _that_ to _her_.

His left thumb continued to gently stroke her neck, her pressure point, "Hmm?"

She motioned past him to the door, "It's open. Not here okay?"Anna blinked up at him pleadingly, "Just not here."

Charlie's hands withdrew. He was a little disappointed, but he couldn't say he didn't understand. It did not, however, stop him from mentioning to her that he always had a fantasy of sexing a hot school teacher on her desk.

Anna turned a deep crimson and almost dropped the book reports she had gathered. Her eyes darted to the door again, and her mind weighed the consequences. Then she looked at him while he looked up at the finger paintings her students had done of their summer vacations. He was actually studying them.

Anna bit her lower lip and put the book reports down. She pushed them back and sat herself back on the edge of the desk. Charlie looked over at her a little surprised when she called his name. She gave him a teasing wink, "Close the door."

* * *

**Chapter 9: Chapter 9**

* * *

Hot N' Cold - Katy Perry

Inside Out - Eve 6

Breath - Breaking Benjamin

* * *

Little Red Riding Hood had never looked so incredible. Tidwell had choked on fruit punch when Charlie showed up with Anna in her red hooded cape and blue and white checkered skirt that stopped just above her knees.

Because while he loved looking at her legs, he didn't feel like sharing the sight with Tidwell.

Reese nearly spit out he own punch when she saw Anna Morgan on her partner's arm. Clearly, she had missed something here. Both dark eyebrows rose when her partner made his way over to her to reintroduce Anna Morgan to Dani Reese.

Reese had plastered a false smile on her face, "Hi." She glared at her partner, "Again."

Anna caught the aggravation in the air. She was still holding the tortilla dip she had made, "Um…I'm going to go put this down on the table Charlie."

He removed his arm from around her shoulders, "Okay."

She had given Dani a smile, "It's nice seeing you under better circumstances Detective Reese."

The moment his date was out of earshot, "Do you have any clue what her father's attorney could do to this department if anyone found out she's your girlfriend?" Dani hissed at her partner. "It could nullify the verdict!"

Charlie's hands went into his suit pants. He hadn't gone out and gotten the Big Bad Wolf costume even though he had thought about it. "We haven't been seeing each other long." That didn't seem to satisfy his also uncostumed partner. "Anna and I have only been going out for a few weeks." Which also didn't seem to quell the anger and annoyance Reese was directing at him.

A month at most. Now that he thought about it. He and Anna had only really been seeing each other for a month. It seemed shorter than that. A hand full of days. He wondered when their one month anniversary was exactly.

"Ye-ouch," Tidwell hit Charlie's back a couple of times in what Charlie assumed was congratulations. Tidwell was looking at Anna, "You're taking me with you next time you go to the bar you picked her up in."

A twinge of jealousy kicked Charlie square in the gut. "I didn't pick Anna up in a bar."

"Anna," Tidwell let the name roll over his tongue. "Cute, though the second wife usually has a name like Amanda or Fiona. Anna has a ring to it."

"He did not meet her in a bar." Dani said vehemently, "She was engaged to a murder vic we had last year. Crews shouldn't even be seeing her."

Tidwell had an unreadable expression on, "Crews, that true?"

"Her father confessed. He's been sentenced and he's serving his time. The case is closed." Charlie thought he sounded a little like a parrot, "We've only been seeing each other a month."

Tidwell relaxed visibly. Shoulders going back to that perpetually slouched mode. He turned his attention back to Reese, "Lighten up Reese, if the case is closed, it's closed." He saw her drink was half empty. Tidwell motioned to her, stepping away from Charlie, "Come on, I'll get you another punch."

"No thanks," She put her drink down on her desk, "I'm good."

The older man shrugged, though the disappointment was visible and stepped back into place by Charlie. He wasn't going to heed the 'get the fuck out' vibe Reese was giving him. He wasn't. Even if he had to wait for her to get drunk on the spiked punch.

Tidwell still had that kiss in mind.

So did Reese. That was why Charlie was strategically placed between them.

Anna returned to her quasi-boyfriend and his partner with a cup of punch for herself and one for Charlie. A smile broke out when Tidwell introduced himself. "So you're Charlie's boss?"

"Yeah." The older man replied looking somewhat proud of himself.

Anna cocked her head, "I'm from Fresh Meadows. What part of New York are you from?"

Tidwell deadpanned for a second. She sure as hell didn't sound like a fellow New Yorker. "Flushing."

Her eyes lit up in the way that Charlie had previously thought only happened for him and her students. He felt that pang of jealousy again. "My grandmother and my aunt used to live there. They live in Woodside now, close to Shea Stadium."

"Your accent's kind of faded." Tidwell replied.

"Fifteen years of living on the wrong coast." Anna said with a raise of her clear plastic cup in mock salute. "I try to go back once a year. It's like the closer I get to JFK the thicker my accent gets."

Tidwell elbowed Charlie, "I like her."

Charlie sipped his punch, noting it was spiked. The taste of the maraschino cherries bothered him more than the vodka. He was attempting to root out the feeling of being jealous over something so minor. It was not Zen to be jealous over Anna and Tidwell talking about New York. It was not Zen to get this attached.

Admitting it wasn't Zen was admitting he was attached to Anna.

He watched the curls of her pig tails bounce as she bobbed her head, nodding at whatever Tidwell was talking about. The Mets. They were a New York baseball team weren't they? He looked to his left. Reese had long since vacated that side.

"So does that mean you'll give Charlie time off to come to New York with me for the World Series if the Mets make it?"

Tidwell was wearing a smile no one in the office had seen before, "Only if it's a Subway Series."

"Deal." Anna replied.

Alright. He was attached. He admitted it. He was more attached to Anna than he had been to the Maseratti. Also not Zen, but who was he going to kid? Charlie sipped his spiked punch. Tidwell slapped his back once again. Charlie assumed it was congratulatory like the last one. Then his boss was gone in search of Reese.

Anna sipped her own punch, pleased that it was indeed spiked. The alcohol helped to steady her nerves. She didn't like crowds of people and the number of those in the office was steadily growing. "I like your boss."

One reddish eyebrow rose, "You want to take me to a what?"

"Mets verses Yankees Subway Series," Anna replied, grinning, "Did I never mention that I love baseball?"

He learned something new about her every day.

"I did promise him I'd take pictures. I know how bad it can get after a while without an infusion of home." She sipped her drink again. "Unless you don't want to go."

Charlie studied her for a moment.

It was an open invitation into becoming a bigger part of her life if he wanted it.

And he wanted it.

He really wanted it.

* * *

I have a World of Warcraft addiction. Compounded by the Wrath of the Lich King update...makes me late for updates.

I've also been trying to find a job.

And Charlie has been disappointingly me lately. Though Tidwell and Reese are making me happy. ^_^

* * *

**Chapter 10: Chapter 10**

* * *

Our Lady Peace - Somewhere Out There

In My Place - Coldplay

* * *

Logically she knew the arcing bright streaks across the heavens were only comets falling from space to burn themselves out in the atmosphere. That didn't stop her from wishing on them. Anna breathed in, her fingers stroking through Elyria's dark hair. "There's one," she pointed upward at the lightning fast flash that crossed just a little south of where they had been looking.

On Anna's shoulder Elyria closed her eyes. At this point she wasn't beyond wishing. She could feel the cold and heavy weight in her legs driven by disease. Sixty degrees on Thanksgiving evening and her body was numbing fast. She curled in closer on her cousin, tugging her heavy army jacket closer.

Anna twirled thick strands of warm, coffee colored hair around her long delicate fingers. "You stopped chemo didn't you."

Elyria's amber eyes closed slowly.

"El…"

"Third time isn't the charm Anna," Elyria breathed out. Her gloved fingers closed around the edges of her jacket. "So tell me about this cop of yours."

Anna smiled wryly. "Will you tell me about your doctor?"

In the cold Elyria blushed, "He's not _my_ doctor. And he's old enough to be my dad."

"Charlie is almost ten years older than me. It can't be that bad El."

"He's almost fifty."

The silence reigned.

Anna blinked her eyelids rapidly as if they would help her comprehend what her cousin had just said. "He's…"

"Almost fifty." Elyria supplied. "Right."

Anna coughed after a few moments of just listening to the echo of traffic. "Subject change."

"So the cop's name is Charlie." Elyria murmured, "He nice?"

"Mmm, very." Anna dug in her jeans for her cell phone. She flipped the little red object open and began searching for her one candid of her boyfriend.

Elyria took the phone from her, "He's kinda hot."

Anna smirked, "Kinda?"

"Okay, he's yummy." Elyria handed the phone back, "You're sleeping with him?"

Anna bit her lower lip, "You sleeping with the doctor?"

Elyria snorted, "He's like a five year old boy pulling my pig tails on the playground."

"Flirting and pushing your buttons." Anna murmured. "No," she sighed, "I'm not sleeping with Charlie."

Silence again, punctuated by horns and traffic.

"He the one?" Elyria asked solemnly.

Anna shrugged, "How do you define the one?"

"Heart beat pitter patter, Bella-Edward can't live without you need, makes you wanna kill him and kiss him at the same time. Gut wrenching panic when you think about breaking up with him."

Anna's lower lip bled where two of her teeth broke the skin. "I don't know."

Elyria pointed her arm upward, "There, there's one."

Together they closed their eyes and wished.

* * *

There were a fair number of maybes running through his head. Maybe if Anna hadn't gone to New York to be with family, he wouldn't have been lonely. Maybe if they had slept together he wouldn't have thought about Jennifer. Maybe he wouldn't have been in bed with Jennifer.

Skinny blondes, he had a weakness for them.

His fingers traced down his ex-wife's back.

He was cheating in more ways than one.

Because he was here with a married woman.

He had a girlfriend yet he slept with someone else.

He had a woman in his arms and he couldn't stop thinking about Anna.

Charlie rubbed his free hand over his eyes.

This had the potential to go bad in so many, many different ways.

And thus the multiple maybes returned.

His mind kept coming back to Anna leaving. He'd seen her Tuesday afternoon after school. She had been packing. Her cousins, the twins with leukemia, were getting worse. Charlie offered to go with her. He even offered to give her the money to upgrade her coach seats to first class.

Anna had given him that smile, the newest one he'd discovered, it was sad and more of an upwards curving frown. She had kissed him and told him to stop throwing money at her problems. She didn't want his money.

Jennifer breathed in slowly. Her fingers tracing along his chest.

If she hadn't left…would he still be here?

Not that he could blame her for this. This was an itch that eventually had to be scratched. Charlie knew that. He also knew he was going to have to tell Anna when she got back.

Jennifer curled into him, her arm across his chest, and her head on his shoulder.

She asked if he was going to find out who did this to them.

He squeezed her and told her he would.

* * *

Anna chewed her lower lip nervously, "I'm a three out of six match, but there's a chance that one or both of them could go into donor versus host. The chemo is working on Viola but Elyria…" she sighed, "El is refusing treatment."

Charlie was nodding, but he wasn't hearing. His mind was going over the various reactions she could go through. He shifted the phone from one ear to the other. "Did she say why?"

"The reasons change. El really isn't good with justifying herself."

She wasn't the only one. He turned around, pacing back and forth behind the couch. Ted was watching him. He glowered at Ted. Ted glowered back. Charlie pulled the phone away from his ear. "I'm going to tell her," he said under his breath.

Ted's eyebrows rose.

"Charlie?" Anna's voice said with uncertainty in his ear.

He glared at Ted and pressed his phone back to his ear, "I'm here."

"So what did you do for Thanksgiving weekend?"

"Nothing really," he replied, "Turkey with Ted and Rachel. Dead body on Black Friday."

Anna paused, "Dead body?"

"In a shopping mall."

Her nose wrinkled, "Who had that brilliant idea? Wait," she said before he could tell her, "don't. I don't want to know."

Charlie began to pace back the way he had come. Ted was still standing there, arms crossed. Looming like Charlie's guilty conscience in a physical manifestation. Aggravated Charlie went to the glass doors that lead to the patio and went outside.

"Which book did you end up reading on the ride over?"

Anna shrugged to herself, nudging her puppy over with the toe of her sneakers, "Started the Ender's Game saga."

"I slept with Jennifer."

And the silence was deafening. Sheba barked at her owner's sudden tenseness. "Sleeping slept, or…" Silently, in her head Anna was hoping he hadn't. Hoping that he was joking.

"Or," Charlie replied.

Anna snapped the phone closed.

* * *

Sorry about the delay in updating but I have discovered Orson Scott Card. My world of fantasy and fiction just got that much cooler.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Chapter 11**

* * *

Full Twilight Soundtrack (And if you haven't seen the movie or read the series GET ON IT)

* * *

Two weeks into the complete silence from Anna, Charlie had finally deemed it a break up. So when he and Reese showed up at Anna's school looking for the friends of the dead badge bunny, his heartbeat was pounding a mile a minute. He felt like someone was holding a marathon in his chest.

They passed through the fourth grade hallway, Reese talking about the case, Charlie holding his breath. He heard Anna's voice. He heard her teaching. He wanted to hover outside her classroom door. He wanted to go back to the day they'd made out like teenagers on her desk.

"Crews," Reese called.

Charlie had unintentionally been two steps past Anna's classroom door and paused there. He had been listening to her talk. Her teaching had stopped though, and he could hear the distinct emptiness in the silence from her classroom.

"Crews," his partner said again.

The distinct click of heels that belonged to feet daintier than Reese's.

Charlie passed Reese on the way to the principal's office.

* * *

He knew every moment was now, and living in the now with multiple pairs of lips pressing to his mouth was so very, very appealing. The decision to get in the pool with beautiful, willing women was most definitely made in the now. The disappointment he felt when he found out one of said beautiful women was Bobby's sister was absolutely an in the now disappointment.

Unfortunately for Charlie's conscience missing Anna was also an in the now feeling. Because he and Anna had been waiting for the weather to cool a little more before getting in the heated pool. Because Tuesday and Thursday nights they would usually end up on his couch watching a movie he'd missed when…he was away.

Because Saturday was their weekly lunch date.

He rubbed his fingers over his eyes and mentally kicked himself for being an idiot.

* * *

The phone rang. He reached for the razor and eyed the number with something akin to annoyance. Jennifer. He hadn't spoken to her since Black Friday. Charlie turned the phone off, sending the call straight to voice mail. He tossed the little black and silver object away from him.

In the past three weeks Charlie had called Anna thirty seven times. Every time he left a message. Some saying he was sorry for being an idiot. Some telling her he missed her. Some telling her that he hadn't slept with Jennifer to hurt her. Some just to say he thought about her.

All of it true, most of it painstakingly so. It wasn't just guilt tearing at him.

He let himself get attached to Anna Morgan in more ways than one. In more than he had let himself get attached to anyone else since he had gotten back into the real world. They might have only been dating two months by the time he screwed up, but they had been dancing around each other for months before hand. Which made admitting what he felt a little more painful than it would have been if they had only just been dating for a couple of months.

On some level he was just a little bit in love with Anna.

Charlie grabbed his phone from where it had settled and turned it back on. He hit send, scrolled for her phone number and hit send once more. It rang, and rang. Her machine picked up as it always did. She was screening.

She was always screening.

"Hey, it's me. I'm either busy or not home so just leave a message and I promise I will get back to you. Bye!" The machine beeped clear and loud in his ear.

"Anna," Charlie said, "I…" he thought to apologize again. Ask her to forgive him. To tell her he missed her. He closed his eyes, "I screwed up. I know I screwed up. I knew it when I went through with it but…" But? "But I needed closure with her. I needed to get her out of my system." Well that was new. He hadn't admitted that to anyone. Not even to Ted.

"I know that I should have done it before you and I ever tried…" And his chest felt a little sore thinking about it. "But I wouldn't give up the time you and I spent together for anything. I miss you. I miss how spending a day with you leaves me smelling like your shampoo and your dog. I…" his throat tightened just enough to roughen his voice. "I miss our lunch dates and that stupid Mexican market you drag me to. I can't…"

The machine clicked. The line went dead.

Charlie's phone clicked closed.

* * *

"You're a mess," Reese observed, eyeing her partner. Mess was an understatement.

Crews had dark circles under his eyes, darker than the ones he had had last week. His usually carefully neat appearance was a little more rumpled every day. Reese was fairly sure she had seen that specific tie three days ago. He had stubble today. Crews _never_ had stubble.

He was steadily declining.

"You and Anna have a fight or-" The way he raised his head. That quick snap upward and the narrowing of his eyes. They had a fight. A bad one apparently if he was torturing himself over it. "What did you do?" Reese asked.

"I slept with my ex wife." He said.

Reese whistled low and soft, "You fucked up."

"No, really?" He replied with dripping sarcasm.

Her dark eyebrows rose.

"Sorry Reese," Charlie amended after a moment. He tugged at the knot of his tie.

"How long has it been?" Reese closed the case file she had been writing notes into, crossing her fingers over the folder.

"Four weeks."

Again Reese whistled. Usually when a woman let it go past the two week line that was a clear boot to the ass for the guy. Then again Crews wasn't the usual and, at least from what she knew of Anna Morgan, Anna wasn't the average woman.

"Have you tried to make it up to her?" Reese attempted a new approach, "Like flowers and jewelry?"

"Both sent back." And no, that didn't sound a bit like sour grapes.

Reese's mouth turned down at the corners. "Did you tell her you're in love with her?" Again with that sharp snap up of his head. Reese just raised one eyebrow at him, keeping that smug feeling to herself. No man put himself through this much crap if he didn't love a woman.

She leaned back in her chair, fingers crossed over her stomach, "Flowers, her favorite and in her favorite color. And beg." Crews opened his mouth, she shook her head, "Get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Tell her you love her. Tell her you fucked up."

Reese cast a glance at Tidwell's office, "I'll cover for you." She jerked her chin toward the elevators, "Get out of here."

He hesitated for a moment, halfway up in his chair, hand poised over his jacket. Then he was up and shrugging his suit jacket on, heading toward the elevator doors with determination.

* * *

The only thing holding Anna up was her hand on the kitchen counter. Next to her hand sat her much abused little red phone, innocently it seemed to look up at her. She closed her dark brown eyes giving the tears that had begun to build there the much needed push to send them coursing down her cheeks in scalding trails.

Elyria had called.

Viola died with three days left until Christmas.

The wake would be Tuesday the twenty third and the funeral would be Christmas day.

At her feet Sheba whined. The puppy, now almost a year old, didn't know what to do about her distressed human. The brown and white creature curled itself against Anna's feet, nuzzling. There were footsteps outside. The puppy's ears perked up. Sheba would know those footsteps anywhere.

Sheba ran to the door, barking long before Charlie ever pressed the doorbell.

The doorbell rang.

Anna wiped at her tears to no avail. Now that they had spilled it seemed like that was all they could do. The immense amount of pain and stress from the past few weeks crashed down on her shoulders. She choked on a sob.

The doorbell rang again.

Wearily Anna went to the door and yanked it open. Charlie stood there with a bouquet of purple hyacinths intermixed with red tulips and white chrysanthemums. Her tear laden eyes took in his haggard appearance, the flowers, and the sorrow in his eyes.

"Viola." He said before she could open her mouth.

Anna just nodded, the tears overflowing again. Her hand came up to her mouth, her head bowed, sobs wracking her willowy frame. Charlie discarded the flowers on the front stoop. His arms were around her, pulling her against his chest. He kissed her hair, tucking her under his chin. He felt her hands ball up against his back, handfuls of his shirt in each fist.

He could apologize later.

Right now she needed him.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Chapter 12**

* * *

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine

Bella's Lullaby - Carter Burwell

* * *

They were on her bed. His pale blue shirt, ruined with tear stains lay at the foot of the bed. Anna's head rested on Charlie's shoulder, her dark eyes finally dried of their tears and her fingers playing with the hem of the plain white t-shirt that he wore under his dress shirt. "You brought flowers." Her voice was detached, "Where are they?"

His mouth formed a flat line, "On the stoop."

Anna moved to get up, "I'll get them."

Charlie tugged her back down, wrapping his arms around her. "Stay here," he murmured into her hair. He stroked her back, trying to ease her now rigid form. He kissed her forehead, "Please."

Anna closed her eyes, breathing in. She had missed the way he smelled. It was something she'd attributed to being just Charlie. He always smelled of clean laundry and something slightly burned with male musk. Her body wanted to curl into that scent, feel it cover her the way it had before.

Before he had been so stupid.

"You cheated on me," she whispered.

"You broke up with me," he whispered in return.

Anna's body betrayed her. She breathed him in deeply, her fingers balling up his t-shirt in one fist. "You deserved it." Then, as if to contradict herself, Anna's body threw her left leg over his hip and pressed her forehead to his collar bone.

His hands stroked down her back to her hips then back up in a soothing motion. "I did deserve it."

Anna sniffed, but no tears found their way to her eyes. "What were the flowers?"

"Hmm?" He asked. Her voice had been so soft that he hadn't heard it.

"The flowers," Anna murmured as she pulled back just a little. Dark, turmoil burdened eyes met sorrowful and pained clear blue ones, "What kind of flowers?"

Charlie told her very carefully watching her expression.

Anna's brow creased, brown eyes focusing at the point where the v-necked t-shirt started to reveal his chest. Her lips moved, but she was silent. His gentle stroking of her back was steady. She would get this. She had said she loved flowers because they all had a meaning.

Every flower had a meaning and a purpose.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me," Anna said slowly after a few moments, "I truly believe I love you."

His hands on her back stopped.

Anna's grip on his shirt seemed to tighten. In his arms she was tense again but it wasn't the same rigidity as earlier. This was different. Her breathing changed.

"You…you…" she stuttered out. Her eyes took on that liquid chocolate tone, the one he loved even though it meant she was upset. Anna pressed her fists against his chest though she wasn't sure if she was going to drag him forward or push him away.

"You love me?" It sounded more like a demand than a question.

Charlie just settled for clearing dark blonde strands from her cheek, her eyes, her forehead, and pressed a kiss to her frowning mouth. "I think I do," he told her softly.

There, there it was. That gut wrenching and painful need for him that spiked through her chest and drove her to press her mouth to his. The gaping hole that she'd created by ripping him cleanly out of her life filled up with Charlie's kisses and his words.

He was smiling a little when she finally pulled back from her assault, "Was that an 'I love you too Charlie?'"

"Shut up," she murmured and dragged him back into kissing. "Just shut up Charlie. You're so stupid."

He could live with that.

* * *

The plane tickets cost a fortune, but he wouldn't let Anna pay for them. Charlie had informed Tidwell he needed the twenty third to the twenty sixth off. Family emergency was the reason he had given when Tidwell began to question.

Anna wasn't family, not exactly. Well…not yet anyway.

He had a feeling somewhere in his gut that she would be, and soon if he could talk her into it.

Elyria, as he found out, was a couple of inches taller than Anna, and built a little like a Victoria Secret model. She used to be a model, Anna told him, when she was a teenager. She was in back copies of Sears and teen fashion magazines. She also had a mouth on her that would make a sailor blush.

And she told him if he broke Anna's heart that she would rip out his lungs and beat him with them.

He could live with that.

He'd even help her if it really came to that point. Charlie doubted it ever would. Never again. He was dead set against it. He had seen her cry so many times that it would break him to be the source of her pain again. He would never let her cry from suffering again.

The first time Charlie Crews had met Anna Morgan she had cried tears of pain and sorrow.

The night Charlie Crews asked Anna Morgan to marry him she cried tears of joy.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> This story was completed about eleven years ago.


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